East Timor – Portuguese American Journalhttp://portuguese-american-journal.com
News and more for the Portuguese American CommunityFri, 16 Feb 2018 02:06:21 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.8.5Community: Silicon Valley Portuguese Education & Culture Foundation – San Jose, CAhttp://portuguese-american-journal.com/community-silicon-valley-portuguese-education-culture-foundation-san-jose-ca/
http://portuguese-american-journal.com/community-silicon-valley-portuguese-education-culture-foundation-san-jose-ca/#respondFri, 23 Jun 2017 14:23:57 +0000http://portuguese-american-journal.com/?p=45095The Silicon Valley Portuguese Education & Culture Foundation (SVPECF) was launched to support Portuguese language education at the San Jose State University. Located in Silicon Valley, the newly founded support group replaces the Portuguese Studies Advisory Board which has served the Portuguese language and culture courses at the university. The goal is to attract more […]

]]>The Silicon Valley Portuguese Education & Culture Foundation (SVPECF) was launched to support Portuguese language education at the San Jose State University.

Located in Silicon Valley, the newly founded support group replaces the Portuguese Studies Advisory Board which has served the Portuguese language and culture courses at the university.

The goal is to attract more students and present them with the opportunity to learn a great international language at the university level, while maintaining the language alive within the local Portuguese community.

According to the initiative, students who learn Portuguese will to be more competitive on a global basis by improving their job opportunities. Mostly dedicated to supporting students of Portuguese and Brazilian heritage the effort will benefit the community at large.

Besides providing scholarships, SVPECF aims to strengthen the cultural enrichment opportunities for students through lectures, film presentations, cultural events, and supporting the Portuguese language collection at the Marin Luther King Library.

Portuguese is the language of Portugal and Brazil and the official langue of countries such as Angola, Cape Verde, Mozambique, Guinea Bissau, Sao Tome and Principe, and East Timor.

Spoken by about 240 million people, Portuguese is the sixth most spoken language in the world, where it occupies the third place as the most spoken European language, after English and Spanish. Alongside English and Spanish, Portuguese is also the main language spoken in the Americas.

]]>http://portuguese-american-journal.com/community-silicon-valley-portuguese-education-culture-foundation-san-jose-ca/feed/0Today in History: Portuguese celebrate 43 years of constitutional democracy – Portugalhttp://portuguese-american-journal.com/today-in-history-portuguese-celebrate-43-years-of-constitutional-democracy-portugal/
http://portuguese-american-journal.com/today-in-history-portuguese-celebrate-43-years-of-constitutional-democracy-portugal/#respondTue, 25 Apr 2017 22:50:46 +0000http://portuguese-american-journal.com/?p=44729Since 1974 “Freedom Day” is celebrated in Portugal — April 25 – as a national holiday to mark the bloodless military coup, supported by the civilian population, bringing democracy and civil liberties to the Portuguese people. After almost five decades of dictatorship (1937-1974), the Carnation Revolution, ended the Estado Novo regime, the longest dictatorship in Europe, […]

]]>Since 1974 “Freedom Day” is celebrated in Portugal — April 25 – as a national holiday to mark the bloodless military coup, supported by the civilian population, bringing democracy and civil liberties to the Portuguese people.

After almost five decades of dictatorship (1937-1974), the Carnation Revolution, ended the Estado Novo regime, the longest dictatorship in Europe, changing the Portuguese political system from an authoritarian dictatorship to a democracy.

The revolution was undertaken by the Armed Forces Movement (MFA) led by General Antonio Spinola and other prominent civilian and army figures. In a matter of hours, General Spinola received the surrender of overthrown Prime Minister Marcelo Caetano who was forced into exile in Brazil.

Spinola took charge of a Provisional Government which promised to restore civil liberties and hold democratic general elections. Hundreds of political prisoners were released.

In 1974, more than half of Portugal’s government budget was spent with its armed forces engaged in wars in three of Portugal’s African colonies. The new regime implemented a swift decolonization program granting independence to Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Cape Verde Islands, Sao Tome and Principe, and Angola.

Over the course of the next decade a stable two party system was established. Soon after, in 1980, the archipelagos of Madeira and the Azores became autonomous regions to enjoy self-government.

Under the constitution of 1976, which established a parliamentary republic, Portugal has been governed by a constitutional democracy with a president, a prime minister, and a parliament elected in multiparty elections. The Portuguese constitution was amended in 1982, 1989, 1992, and 1997. More @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnation_Revolution

]]>http://portuguese-american-journal.com/today-in-history-portuguese-celebrate-43-years-of-constitutional-democracy-portugal/feed/0Book: ‘The Lusophone World’ by Sarah Ashby – Editor’s Notehttp://portuguese-american-journal.com/book-the-lusophone-world-by-sarah-ashby-editors-note/
http://portuguese-american-journal.com/book-the-lusophone-world-by-sarah-ashby-editors-note/#respondThu, 02 Mar 2017 02:05:07 +0000http://portuguese-american-journal.com/?p=43623Portugal’s European Union honeymoon has officially ended. It was the victim of a Europe-wide political and financial crisis and an unstable EU identity increasingly splintered along regional and economic fractures. What does this mean for the former ‘‘good student’’ of European democracy? The answer may lie in renewed Portuguese efforts to deepen and strengthen ties […]

]]>Portugal’s European Union honeymoon has officially ended. It was the victim of a Europe-wide political and financial crisis and an unstable EU identity increasingly splintered along regional and economic fractures. What does this mean for the former ‘‘good student’’ of European democracy? The answer may lie in renewed Portuguese efforts to deepen and strengthen ties with Lusophone countries across the globe, which since 1996 have been organized into a supranational organization called the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries (CPLP). While Portugal’s marginality in relation to Europe might be emphasized in the corridors of Brussels, within the realm of the CPLP the former world power can once again see itself as existing at the center – geographically as well as from a historic-cultural perspective – of an extensive international milieu.

The Lusophone World: The Evolution of Portuguese National Narratives explores the dialectic between Portugal’s sense of identity and belonging in the EU and the CPLP. It provides an analysis of the manner in which Portugal’s institutional allegiances to both of these organizations have impacted the political, economic, and social fabric of the nation. The fact that Portugal is turning to its former colonies as alternate partners in trade, commerce, emigration, and development initiatives may not be evidence of straightforward estrangement from the European continent. More likely, Portugal appears to be riding a fresh wave of what it means to be modern in the European milieu. This new concept of “modernity,” related to rhetoric of hybridity and a self-professed position as interlocutor, could be evidence of a deeper understanding of the new tools needed to survive and prosper in a rapidly-changing European Union.

About the Author

Sarah Ashby obtained a Bachelor’s Degree from Middlebury College in 2010 and a Ph.D. from Brown University’s Department of Portuguese and Brazilian Studies in 2015. Her research interests focus on the history of post-colonial political, economic, and social relations in the Lusophone world. She is currently a Foreign Service Officer in São Paulo, Brazil.

Book Details

Title: The Lusophone World: The Evolution of Portuguese National Narratives

]]>http://portuguese-american-journal.com/book-the-lusophone-world-by-sarah-ashby-editors-note/feed/0Lisbon: Portuguese language to expand to 400 million speakers globally – Portugalhttp://portuguese-american-journal.com/lisbon-portuguese-language-to-expand-to-400-million-speakers-globally-portugal/
http://portuguese-american-journal.com/lisbon-portuguese-language-to-expand-to-400-million-speakers-globally-portugal/#respondThu, 17 Nov 2016 22:56:01 +0000http://portuguese-american-journal.com/?p=43477By Carolina Matos, Editor (*) According to the New Atlas of the Portuguese Language [Novo Atlas da Língua Portuguesa], published in Lisbon this week, in 2100 the Portuguese language is projected to be spoken globally by 400 million. Published in a Portuguese-English edition, by the Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE), the book was presented in […]

According to the New Atlas of the Portuguese Language [Novo Atlas da Língua Portuguesa], published in Lisbon this week, in 2100 the Portuguese language is projected to be spoken globally by 400 million.

Published in a Portuguese-English edition, by the Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE), the book was presented in Lisbon this week in a ceremony presided by the Portuguese Minister of Foreign Affairs Augusto Santos Silva.

The publication, cosponsored by the Camões Institute and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was co-authored by Luís Antero, Rector of the ISCTE, and faculty members Fernando Luís Machado and José Paulo Esperança.

Researched based, the edition presents updated information relating to Portuguese as a global language spoken by 263 million (2015) in Europe, South America, Africa and Asia. According to the book, in 2050 Portuguese will be spoken by an estimated 390 million and in 2100 by a projected 400 million.

The book includes a wide range of geographical, economic, financial, commercial, human mobility, geostrategic indicators, culture and science, targeting audiences in the Community of Portuguese Language Countries [Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa/ CPLP] which includes Portugal (including Madeira and the Azores), Brazil, Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe and East Timor.

The New Atlas of the Portuguese Language projects that by 2100, the former Portuguese colonies of Angola and Mozambique will account for the bulk of Portuguese speakers in the world, a combined population of 266 million,topping Brazil with a protected 200 million Portuguese speakers in 2100.

Data collected in 2012 has revealed that Portuguese is the fourth most spoken language globally after Mandarin, Spanish, and English. The same data also revealed that Portuguese is the fifth most used language on the Internet after English, Mandarin, Spanish and Arabic. Portuguese is also the third most used language on Facebook and the fifth on Tweeter.

Currently, Portuguese is the third most widely spoken European language, after English and Spanish. More people around the world speak Portuguese as their native language than French, German, Italian or Japanese.

The New Atlas of the Portuguese Language includes language variation samples from writers from the eight Portuguese-speaking countries forming the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP). Created in 1996, CPLP represents the community of nations where Portuguese if the official language,

Portuguese is now recognized as a working language by European Union, the Mercosul, the African Union, the Organization of Ibero-American States, and the Organization of American States, among other world organizations.

A motion was approved recently to add Portuguese as the 7th official language of the United Nations in addition to Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, Spanish. The motion was presented early this month at the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries summit staged in Brasilia (Brazil), with the participation of leaders from the eight CPLP countries where Portuguese is the official language. The motion was supported by António Guterres, the newly elected United Nations Secretary-General starting January 1, 2017. May 5th is the International Day of the Portuguese Language and Culture.

(*) Carolina Matos,is the founder and editor of the Portuguese American Journal online. She was the editor–in-chief of The Portuguese American Journal,in print, from 1985 to 1995. From 1995 to 2010, she was a consultant for Lisbon based Luso-American Development Foundation (FLAD). She graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Liberal Arts and a Master’s Degree in English and Education from Brown University and holds a Doctorate in Education from Lesley University. She has been an adjunct professor at Lesley University where she has taught undergraduate and graduate courses. In 2004, Carolina Matos was honored with the Comenda da Ordem do Infante D. Henrique, presented by Jorge Sampaio, President of Portugal.

]]>http://portuguese-american-journal.com/lisbon-portuguese-language-to-expand-to-400-million-speakers-globally-portugal/feed/0Book: ‘New Approaches to Lusophone Culture’ – Editor’s Notehttp://portuguese-american-journal.com/book-new-approaches-to-lusophone-culture-editors-note/
http://portuguese-american-journal.com/book-new-approaches-to-lusophone-culture-editors-note/#respondMon, 05 Sep 2016 14:00:12 +0000http://portuguese-american-journal.com/?p=43731The history of Brazil is marked by the transfer of the Portuguese crown to Rio de Janeiro and the declaration of its independence in 1822 whereas African colonies underwent the Colonial War in the 1960s and 1970s in the context of the Portuguese Estado Novo, while Macau, which was the last European Colony in Asia, […]

]]>The history of Brazil is marked by the transfer of the Portuguese crown to Rio de Janeiro and the declaration of its independence in 1822 whereas African colonies underwent the Colonial War in the 1960s and 1970s in the context of the Portuguese Estado Novo, while Macau, which was the last European Colony in Asia, became independent in 1999. In the wake of colonization and amidst the increasing impacts of globalization, Portuguese-speaking countries have formed national and supra-national alliances beyond the Lusophone community: Portugal with the EU, Brazil as part of Mercosur, Macau with China, not to mention Goa’s annexation to India.

In this context, cultural production has been marked by negotiation with the colonial past, independence in Africa and Asia and the end of dictatorship in Portugal and Brazil, changes in gender relations and dialogue with commercial genres associated with US culture. This negotiation is found in literature and films through the perpetuation or problematization of discourses symptomatic of the colonial legacy, which informs representation of historical moments as well as their aftermath. Likewise, historical and subjective memory of the dictatorship in Portugal (1933-1974) and Brazil (1964-1985) appears as a recurring theme in Portuguese-speaking culture.

While there have been discussions about how Portuguese-speaking Asian and African countries have negotiated the processes and consequences of independence and how Portugal and Brazil have experienced the transition from military dictatorship to democracy, the cultural responses from Lusophone countries to these transformations remain largely unexplored. Especially scant attention has been paid to cultural products from Lusophone Asia and issues regarding gender in postcolonial Africa. Moreover, Portuguese-speaking productions of film genres associated with Hollywood, in particular Science Fiction are often overlooked. Addressing those areas in Lusophone studies foregrounds original approaches to the exploration of the diversity of Portuguese-language culture and its ongoing changes in a globalized era.

This book takes original and unique approaches to explore a selected body of Portuguese-language cultural production from four different continents. Such a broad geographical scope allows exploration of a variety of genres, and subject matter that reflects the cultural diversity of the Lusophone community while simultaneously situating Portuguese-language cultural production within a globalized and postcolonial context. By foregrounding cultural diversity within the Lusophone community, the study uncovers the ways in which Portuguese-language cultural production has registered and indeed helped to transform the social-historical contexts to which it belongs. This book thus examines Portuguese-speaking cultural products not only in its national and regional context but also as part of a wider supra-national community such as the Lusophone one, which is characterized by a colonial legacy that is still kept alive by language and culture.

New Approaches to Lusophone Culture is an important book for Lusophone and Iberian and Latin American studies and cultural studies in general. Contributors to this book are listed here.

About the Editor

Natália Pinazza’s research interests centre on Postcolonial theory and Lusophone/Latin American cultural studies with a particular focus on Argentina and Brazil. She completed an ORSA funded PhD at the University of Bath, UK. She studied Portuguese and Italian as an undergraduate at the University of São Paulo, Brazil before completing a MA (funded by Academic Excellence Awards) at the University of Bath, UK. She has previously taught language and content modules at the University of Sheffield and contributed to undergraduate teaching at the University of Bath. She undertook research (March- June 2012) funded by UNESCO in indigenous visual cultures at the University of Ottawa, Canada. She has given papers at conferences in Europe, Australia, and the Americas. A list of her publications is here.

]]>http://portuguese-american-journal.com/book-new-approaches-to-lusophone-culture-editors-note/feed/0Language: President Rebelo de Sousa to revise Orthographic Agreement – Portugalhttp://portuguese-american-journal.com/language-president-rebelo-de-sousa-to-revise-orthographic-agreement-portugal/
http://portuguese-american-journal.com/language-president-rebelo-de-sousa-to-revise-orthographic-agreement-portugal/#respondFri, 20 May 2016 14:10:33 +0000http://portuguese-american-journal.com/?p=42343The new president elect of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, has stated that he is open to revise the Portuguese Language Orthographic Agreement of 1990. The main purpose of the agreement was to create a unified orthography for the Portuguese language in the countries where Portuguese is the official language, most notably the variants between […]

]]>The new president elect of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, has stated that he is open to revise the Portuguese Language Orthographic Agreement of 1990.

The main purpose of the agreement was to create a unified orthography for the Portuguese language in the countries where Portuguese is the official language, most notably the variants between Brazil and Portugal.

The signatories were the member states of the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries (CPLP) which included Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal, and São Tomé and Príncipe.

The agreement undersigned in Lisbon, on December 16, 1990, and implemented in 2008, has been met with controversy and resistance in the countries involved.

Of the signatories, while Brazil, Portugal, São Tome and Príncipe and Cape Verde have ratified the accord, Angola and Mozambique have declined to endorse the agreement.

In Portugal, as recently as May 11, the National Association of Portuguese Teachers and several members of the Citizens Against the Orthographic Accord, a group demanding a national referendum on the mater, have appealed for the Portuguese courts to annul the agreement.

They argue that changes are a capitulation to Brazilian Portuguese, while proponents counter the move will make the language more uniform globally.

In 1990, as a private citizen, President Rebelo de Sousa had signed a manifest, along with 400 other Portuguese personalities, against the controversial orthographic accord. Rebelo de Sousa was sworn president on March 9.

Portuguese is the fifth most spoken language in the world. An estimated 280 million people speak Portuguese worldwide, of which 202 million are in Brazil, 24.7 million in Angola, 24.6 million in Mozambique and 10.8 million in Portugal.

The Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) celebrates May 5ththe International Day of the Portuguese Language and Culture.

]]>http://portuguese-american-journal.com/language-president-rebelo-de-sousa-to-revise-orthographic-agreement-portugal/feed/0May 5th – International Day of the Portuguese Language and Culture – CPLPhttp://portuguese-american-journal.com/may-5th-international-day-of-the-portuguese-language-and-culture-cplp-2/
http://portuguese-american-journal.com/may-5th-international-day-of-the-portuguese-language-and-culture-cplp-2/#respondThu, 05 May 2016 15:01:19 +0000http://portuguese-american-journal.com/?p=42217The Lusophone world is celebrating today the International Day of the Portuguese Language and Culture. The celebrations, which were first held in May 5, 2013, will take place in about five dozen countries. The initiative was launched by the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) during the 14th CPLP Council of Ministers meeting, in Cape […]

]]>The Lusophone world is celebrating today the International Day of the Portuguese Language and Culture. The celebrations, which were first held in May 5, 2013, will take place in about five dozen countries.

The initiative was launched by the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) during the 14th CPLP Council of Ministers meeting, in Cape Verde, in June of 2009, when it was agreed to dedicate May 5th to celebrating the common linguistic and cultural ties which unite the eight countries that belong to the CPLP.

Created in 1996, CPLP represents the community of nations where Portuguese if the official language, an estimated 280 million people, including Portugal, Brazil, Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe and East Timor.

Portuguese is the third most widely spoken European language, after English and Spanish, with some 240 million users worldwide. More people around the world speak Portuguese as their native language than French, German, Italian or Japanese.

Portuguese is now recognized as a working language by European Union, the Mercosul, the African Union, the Organization of Ibero-American States, and the Organization of American States, among other world organizations.

]]>http://portuguese-american-journal.com/may-5th-international-day-of-the-portuguese-language-and-culture-cplp-2/feed/0Book: ‘Power and Corruption in the Early Modern Portuguese World’ – Editor’s Notehttp://portuguese-american-journal.com/book-power-and-corruption-in-the-early-modern-portuguese-world-editors-note/
http://portuguese-american-journal.com/book-power-and-corruption-in-the-early-modern-portuguese-world-editors-note/#respondFri, 10 Jul 2015 15:31:17 +0000http://portuguese-american-journal.com/?p=37676Encompassing numerous territories across four different continents, Portugal’s early modern empire depended upon a vast and complex bureaucracy, yet colonial power did not reside solely in the centralized state. In a masterful reconceptualization of the functioning of empire, Erik Lars Myrup’s Power and Corruption in the Early Modern Portuguese World argues that beneath the surface […]

]]>Encompassing numerous territories across four different continents, Portugal’s early modern empire depended upon a vast and complex bureaucracy, yet colonial power did not reside solely in the centralized state. In a masterful reconceptualization of the functioning of empire, Erik Lars Myrup’s Power and Corruption in the Early Modern Portuguese World argues that beneath the surface of formal government, an intricate web of interpersonal relationships played a key role in binding together the Portuguese empire.

Myrup draws on archival research in Portugal, Spain, Brazil, and China to demonstrate how informal networks of power and patronage offered a crucial means of navigating – or circumventing – the serpentine paths of the governmental hierarchy.

Populated by a host of colorful characters, from backland explorers to colonial magistrates, Power and Corruption in the Early Modern Portuguese World demonstrates how informal social connections both magnified and diminished the power of the colonial state. If such systems contributed to corruption and fraud, they also facilitated effective cross-cultural exchange and ensured the survival of empire in times of crisis and decline. Myrup has produced a truly global study that sheds new light on the influence of interpersonal networks on the administration of a vast overseas empire.

About the Author

Erik Lars Myrup is assistant professor of history at the University of Kentucky. His articles and reviews have appeared in The Americas, Portuguese Studies, Itinerario, and the Hispanic American Historical Review.

]]>http://portuguese-american-journal.com/book-power-and-corruption-in-the-early-modern-portuguese-world-editors-note/feed/0Book: ‘Emigration and the Sea’ – Editor’s Notehttp://portuguese-american-journal.com/book-emigration-and-the-sea-editors-note/
http://portuguese-american-journal.com/book-emigration-and-the-sea-editors-note/#respondTue, 30 Jun 2015 21:24:27 +0000http://portuguese-american-journal.com/?p=37667Today Portuguese is the seventh most widely spoken language in the world and Brazil is a new economic powerhouse. Both phenomena result from the Portuguese ‘Discoveries’ of the 15th and 16th centuries, and the Catholic missions that planted Portuguese communities in every continent. Some were part of the Portuguese empire but many survived independently under […]

]]>Today Portuguese is the seventh most widely spoken language in the world and Brazil is a new economic powerhouse. Both phenomena result from the Portuguese ‘Discoveries’ of the 15th and 16th centuries, and the Catholic missions that planted Portuguese communities in every continent. Some were part of the Portuguese empire but many survived independently under other rulers with their own Creole languages and indigenized Portuguese culture. In the 19th and 20th centuries these were joined by millions of economic migrants who established Portuguese settlements in Europe, North America, Venezuela and South Africa – and in less likely places, including Bermuda, Guyana and Hawaii.

Interwoven within this global history of the diaspora are stories of the Portuguese who left mainland Portugal and the islands, the lives of the Sephardic Jews, the African slaves imported into the Atlantic Islands and Brazil and the Goans who later spread along the imperial highways of Portugal and Britain. Much of Portugal’s contribution to science and the arts, as well as its influence in the modern world, can be attributed to the members of these widely scattered Portuguese communities, and these are given their due in Newitt’s engrossing volume

About the Author
Malyn Newitt is Professor of History in the Department of Portuguese and Brazilian Studies, King’s College, London and author of A History of Mozambique, Portugal in European and World History, A History of Portuguese Overseas Expansion 1400-1668 and Portugal in West Africa 1415-1670.

Book Details

Title: Emigration and the Sea: An Alternative Historyof Portugal and the Portuguese

]]>http://portuguese-american-journal.com/book-emigration-and-the-sea-editors-note/feed/0Book: ‘The Eagle and the Dragon’ – Reviewhttp://portuguese-american-journal.com/book-the-eagle-and-the-dragon-review/
http://portuguese-american-journal.com/book-the-eagle-and-the-dragon-review/#respondMon, 22 Jun 2015 15:58:36 +0000http://portuguese-american-journal.com/?p=39206Review by Juan José Morales (*) The first Portuguese embassy to China, headed by Tomé Pires, set out from Canton in 1517, reaching the capital Peking in December 1520. Although they carried gifts and letters from King Manuel, the Portuguese did not see the Emperor but were treated as spies, thrown into jail and some […]

The first Portuguese embassy to China, headed by Tomé Pires, set out from Canton in 1517, reaching the capital Peking in December 1520. Although they carried gifts and letters from King Manuel, the Portuguese did not see the Emperor but were treated as spies, thrown into jail and some executed.

Meanwhile, in November 1519, a Spanish expedition led by Hernán Cortés entered Mexico-Tenochtitlán where they were received with spectacular pomp by the emperor Moctezuma. Months later, in August 1521, the Aztec capital would fall to the Spanish, opening the door to their conquest of much of the American continent.

These first encounters between the Iberians and the two world civilizations of Mexico and China took place therefore around the same time although with completely different outcomes. Serge Gruzinski’s The Eagle and the Dragon, the title referring to the iconic symbols of Mexico and China, is a groundbreaking study that sets to explain the timing and implications of these events.

Gruzinski is one of the most distinguished historians of Hispanic-American cultures. He is a visiting professor at Princeton, as well as research director at the CNRS and director of studies at EHESS, two French prestigious research institutes. Most of his works are promptly translated from French into Spanish and Portuguese, and many have been translated into English too, including this volume.

As historian Peter Burke notes in the foreword, The Eagle and the Dragon is a fine example of what the French call histoire croisée, literally “entangled history”, which aims to explain the past by examining multiple paths and the links between them. Indeed, Gruzinski focuses not so much on providing new historical detail as in elucidating the parallel and intertwined paths of these two events and their combined antecedents and consequences. The result is a feat of scholarship with striking and far reaching interpretations.

World history, argues Gruzinski, does not derive from European expansion – as some narratives might have it – but from a globalization of exchanges. He explores the responses of China and Hispanic America in this light. China was left largely unperturbed and with the capacity to control the flow of exchanges—which persists today – while Hispanic America emerged as a new world of métissages – a simultaneously Western, indigenous American and global blend.

The important message for today is that it was with the Iberian-led globalization of the sixteenth century that Europe, the New World and China became world partners. This globalization was more universal or multilateral than that which followed and—perhaps more in tune with current developments—less Eurocentric as well. China and the Americas are major players in globalization today thanks to that early encounter, their destinies having become inseparable.

The Portuguese embassy to China and the Spanish conquest of Mexico were preceded by similarly simultaneous events, for in 1511 the Portuguese took Malacca and the Spanish Cuba, stepping-stones to greater aims. These and other episodes derived from a common dynamic: not least the headlong competition between Portugal and Spain for the spices and riches of Asia and China; the discovery of America was an accident.

The Eagle and the Dragon revisits the ever-fascinating intellectual ferment of late 15th and early 16th centuries and the information networks established between Lisbon, Seville and Rome, and thence to the rest of Europe. One example is the famous letter by Florentine astronomer Toscanelli, a man privy to Papal audiences with ambassadors, explaining to Lisbon canon Fernão Martins that it was possible to reach the Indies by crossing the Atlantic. Another is the increasing circulation of Marco Polo’s Travels, the early drawn maps inspired by the book, and its new translations: into Portuguese in 1502, and even more important, the translation into Spanish in 1503 by Rodrigo de Santaella, canon of Seville. Santaella notably rejected in his prologue Columbus’s idea that the Antilles were part of Asia and was the first to acknowledge that those Western isles were “Opposite-India”, on the other side of the world.

Santaella, who “was aware of the upheavals caused by the Iberian expeditions”, also advanced another argument of more profound consequences, that of “the admirable diversity of divine creation”, and therefore the opening up of fresh grounds for Christianization.

On the ground, the Portuguese in Asia worked from centuries-old knowledge, making use of “mercantile routes and information networks that had existed in the Far East for centuries”. In 1512, even before the Portuguese had set foot in China, Chinese brocades and books had arrived Lisbon. King Manuel offered one of the books to Pope Leo X, which attracted the admiration of the great humanist Paolo Giovio.

While in Malacca and India in 1512-1515, Tomé Pires, wrote Suma Oriental, the finest compendium of Asia knowledge for more than one hundred years. Spanish expeditions in America, however, were a leap in the void, into the unknown. But after the disappointment of the Antilles, the discovery of the urban civilizations of Mesoamerica meant a decisive step in the first true globalization.

Both the Spanish and Portuguese were filled with admiration at what they found for they understood cities to be centers of civilization. Underpinned by the prestige of the written word, the Chinese books and the Mexican codices were equally considered as marks of sophistication – although the Spanish were also troubled by the human sacrifices in Mexico. In the end, the Spanish took over by force and set out to destroy the Mesoamerican cultures. The Portuguese could not achieve the same outcome; China’s cultural goods, on the contrary, became a constant supply of luxuries to the world.

Gruzinski provides valuable insights into the respective reactions of both Chinese and Mesoamericans. The Chinese displayed a complete lack of interest in the Portuguese or where they originally came from. They also showed a remarkable amnesia of earlier encounters in medieval times with Europeans. The Portuguese are called “Fo-lang-ki”, a name of Arabic and Persian origin referring to the West, just vaguely understanding are coming somewhere in the direction of Sumatra.

This “aversion to foreigners” on the part of the Chinese, being completely impermeable and intractable—as their proverbial ethnocentrism—is complex. For the author, it can be traced to centuries-old conflicts with the peoples of the steppes, which whom the Chinese had refused to trade since the onset of the Ming dynasty in mid-14th century. For the Chinese, a foreigner was a barbarian and a barbarian was a threat.

The limited nature of official curiosity was probably a consequence of the way in which the Chinese court dealt with foreigners and the status it accorded them. The Portuguese had come from a country that was unknown to the Chinese and that did not figure in their list of tributary states. Relations between China and the external world were strictly codified. Even the Suma Oriental of Tomé Pires, written before he had set foot in China, had noted this.

Hence, Gruzinski rejects the expression “clash of civilizations” as a modern construct. Simply, there was a demonstrated inability to engage in fresh thinking on the part of the Chinese administration and an idealized image of relations with the external world. Certainly, at that time there were no notions of equality and reciprocity. “No one wanted or ever contemplated engaging in an ethnography of the other, which would have been totally anachronistic.”

In contrast, says Gruzinski, “the Mesoamerican societies had a pressing need to understand the aggressor…, had retained a place for the other.” (The indigenous Americans called the Iberians by their names, “Castilian”, Castellanos—in contrast, the Iberians named all the peoples they encountered “Indians”.) This openness, among other reasons, would be the cause of their undoing.
Mexico and China entered simultaneously into world consciousness, maps and pictures; shattering for Mexico, unobtrusive for China, both entered into the world stage, creating a global imaginaire 7ndash; a complete cultural and philosophical assemblage.

The Portuguese failure in China drew a dividing line between Asia and America. On one side was a New World which would give its raison d’être to the West, and whose wealth, population and spaces would be ruthlessly exploited; on the other was Imperial China, which would absorb much of the silver extracted from the mines of America by the defeated Indians and African slaves. The fate of the two shores of the Pacific was now linked, as the Iberians had laid down the economic and political bases for a massive decanting of precious metal. The history of the colonization of the New World would have China always in the background, America would be a constant presence in that of modern China.

The Eagle and the Dragon demonstrates Gruzinski’s premise that “the colonization of America and the history of Asia are linked.” Definitely, China benefited from the American colonial set-up: it is because of the constant flow of American silver and the introduction of new crops (sweet potato, peanuts, maize) that from the end of the sixteenth century China experienced unprecedented prosperity, conditions that translated in a demographic boost and also helped to enrich the merchant class.
Gruzinski’s point of view is set in a simple question that deserves serious consideration: it was the Iberians who visited America and China, never the other way around. One would add then another question: if those events are of such crucial importance, the effect over world history spreading over several centuries as to be felt even today, why this is taken for granted?

The Eagle and the Dragon: Globalization and European Dreams of Conquest in China and America in the Sixteenth Century, Serge Gruzinski (Polity Press, December 2014)

Serge Gruzinski is a historian and French anthropologist born in Tourcoing on November 5, 1949, specializing in the history of Mexico and author of celebrated works on Ethnology and theories of miscegenation. Currently he is the Director of Research at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and Director of Studies at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris.
_______________About the reviewer:Juan José Morales is a Spanish lawyer and management consultant who writes for the Spanish magazine Compromiso Empresarial. A former President of the Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, he has a Master of International and Public Affairs from Hong Kong University and has also studied international relations at Peking University (Beida).

]]>http://portuguese-american-journal.com/book-the-eagle-and-the-dragon-review/feed/0Book: ‘Momentum and the East Timor Independence Movement’ – Editor’s Notehttp://portuguese-american-journal.com/book-momentum-and-the-east-timor-independence-movement-editors-note/
http://portuguese-american-journal.com/book-momentum-and-the-east-timor-independence-movement-editors-note/#respondMon, 16 Mar 2015 15:24:20 +0000http://portuguese-american-journal.com/?p=37338‘Momentum and the East Timor Independence Movement: The Origins of America’s Debate on East Timor’ examines the campaigns by people in the United States on behalf of those seeking peace for East Timor. The diplomatic work of voluntary advisors and supporters living in the United States in the early years of the movement have not been […]

]]>‘Momentum and the East Timor Independence Movement: The Origins of America’s Debate on East Timor’ examines the campaigns by people in the United States on behalf of those seeking peace for East Timor. The diplomatic work of voluntary advisors and supporters living in the United States in the early years of the movement have not been thoroughly explored until now. Through in-depth interviews with twenty activists and intellectuals involved in the East Timor movement from 1975-1999 and qualitative data analysis on information obtained from these interviews, this book explores “momentum” and “turning points” as perceptions in the minds of individual movement actors. The author takes readers through a combination of historical events that shaped social movement actors’ attitudes and started a social movement momentum sequence in 1995. The East Timor All Inclusive Dialogue, the Timorization of Indonesia, the public outcries, organizational evolution, and a number of other turning points in the movement represented a series of successes that led to East Timor’s independence.

]]>http://portuguese-american-journal.com/book-momentum-and-the-east-timor-independence-movement-editors-note/feed/0Book: The ‘Civilising Mission’ of Portuguese Colonialism, 1870-1930 – Editor’s Notehttp://portuguese-american-journal.com/book-the-civilising-mission-of-portuguese-colonialism-1870-1930-editors-note/
http://portuguese-american-journal.com/book-the-civilising-mission-of-portuguese-colonialism-1870-1930-editors-note/#respondThu, 19 Feb 2015 18:37:55 +0000http://portuguese-american-journal.com/?p=36769This book provides an historical critical analysis of the doctrine of the ‘civilising mission’ in Portuguese colonialism in the crucial period from 1870 to 1930. Exploring international contexts and transnational connections, imperial politics and colonial policies, this ‘civilising mission’ is analysed and assessed by examining the contentious debates about the recruitment, employment and distribution of […]

]]>This book provides an historical critical analysis of the doctrine of the ‘civilising mission’ in Portuguese colonialism in the crucial period from 1870 to 1930. Exploring international contexts and transnational connections, imperial politics and colonial policies, this ‘civilising mission’ is analysed and assessed by examining the contentious debates about the recruitment, employment and distribution of African manpower, namely over the persistence of slavery, the emergence and legalisation of ‘conditions analogous to slavery’, and of other modalities of compulsory labour.

About the Author

Miguel Bandeira Jerónimo is Researcher at the Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon, Portugal. His interests focus on the Comparative Histories of Imperialism and Colonialism. He recently published ‘A diplomacia do império’ and edited ‘O império colonial em questão’ (both in 2012), and co-edited ‘Portugal e o fim do colonialismo’ (2014) and ‘The Ends of European Colonial Empires: Cases and Comparisons’ (2015).

]]>http://portuguese-american-journal.com/book-the-civilising-mission-of-portuguese-colonialism-1870-1930-editors-note/feed/0News Alert: ETAN exposes East-Timor policies hostile to democracy and the rule of lawhttp://portuguese-american-journal.com/news-alert-etan-exposes-east-timor-policies-hostile-to-democracy-and-the-rule-of-law/
http://portuguese-american-journal.com/news-alert-etan-exposes-east-timor-policies-hostile-to-democracy-and-the-rule-of-law/#respondTue, 16 Dec 2014 15:58:48 +0000http://portuguese-american-journal.com/?p=35863In a prepared statement, dated December 15, 2014, the East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN), a human rights watch group based in the United States, alerts the international community to recent events in East-Timor (Timor-Leste) that are hostile to democracy and undermines the rule of law in the former Portuguese colony. Established in 1991, […]

]]>In a prepared statement, dated December 15, 2014, the East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN), a human rights watch group based in the United States, alerts the international community to recent events in East-Timor (Timor-Leste) that are hostile to democracy and undermines the rule of law in the former Portuguese colony.

Established in 1991,ETAN is a nonprofit US organization supporting human rights throughout Southeast Asia and Oceania. In 1991 ETAN actively supported the right to self-determination of Timor-Leste.

Full text in English:

“The East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) is concerned that recent events in Timor-Leste weaken the country’s hard-won constitutional democracy and endanger the right of Timor-Leste’s citizens to live in a society governed under the rule of law.

“On October 24, Timor-Leste’s Prime Minister persuaded Parliament and the Council of Ministers to fire seven international judges and prosecutors and an adviser to the Anti-Corruption Commission. When the Chief Judge explained that this was an unconstitutional violation of separation of powers, the Government revoked their visas and ordered them out of the country within 48 hours, and they complied.[1]

“As an immediate consequence, Timor-Leste’s court system is severely limited. Many trials have had to be restarted, people languish in jail waiting for their trials and victims of crimes are unable to see justice done. Training of new Timorese judges and lawyers is largely curtailed, investigations into corruption and other crimes are slowed, and a message has been sent to everyone in the judicial system — Timorese and foreign — that they should think twice before displeasing high officials.

“For nearly a quarter-century, ETAN has supported the right of the Timorese people to choose their own leaders and govern their sovereign nation, and we continue to do so. After voting to end the Indonesian occupation, the people of Timor-Leste established an exemplary constitution which guarantees human rights, the separation of powers, and a democratic state under rule of law. ETAN applauded the restoration of that state’s independence in 2002, and we continue to support the right of Timor-Leste’s citizens to run their own country. However, that right belongs to all citizens through rules enshrined in their own constitution, not only to a few leaders claiming to act in the “national interest” or that force majeure justifies illegal or unconstitutional actions.

“According to the Prime Minister and other officials, mistakes by international judges and prosecutors caused Timor-Leste to lose cases regarding petroleum taxes which had been evaded by companies contracted to export Timor-Leste’s oil and gas. If this is correct, it would have been better to investigate and discipline the individuals at fault, rather than an entire group.

“We strongly believe that the oil companies should pay all the taxes they owe, and their industry’s global history of tax avoidance necessitates special precautions.[2] However, such cases should be decided according to the law, not political posturing or nationalism — to do otherwise could deter legitimate investors and others from participating in Timor-Leste’s economy. Furthermore, Timor-Leste’s government has paid millions of its people’s dollars to hire international legal counsel, and those experts should have identified and corrected the mistakes long before now. Petroleum-export-dependent countries such as Timor-Leste often suffer from corruption or maladministration inside and outside government, and concerted efforts are needed to guarantee that their people receive all the deserved benefits from their own natural resources.

“Some believe that the assault on judicial independence is intended to deflect criticism or prosecution of high government officials who may be involved in corruption, a belief reinforced by the Prime Minister’s October 22 letter to Parliament[3] urging them to maintain immunity for members of his government until after the 2017 election. ETAN does not know if protecting alleged criminals is a motive for firing the international judicial personnel, but effective investigation and prosecution with trials by an independent court system, are the best way to determine who has committed crimes. In addition, improved transparency, accountability, unrestricted media coverage, and checks and balances can reduce corruption in the future.

“The latest controversy underscores the challenges of implementing Rule of Law in a post-colonial nation, as shown by the ongoing impunity for serious crimes committed during the illegal 1975-1999 Indonesian occupation and the extra-legal freeing of indicted criminal Maternus Bere five years ago. Just this year, actions against “illegal groups” and limitations on freedom of the press demonstrate how difficult it is to solidify a democratic culture after a half-millennium of colonization and occupation, when rulers were unaccountable and Timorese people’s rights were routinely violated.

“We join with the Prime Minister and others in their wish for accelerated Timorization of the state apparatus, including the judicial system. But centuries of autocratic foreign rule, with few opportunities for Timorese to get good education or experience, make this a protracted process. Unfortunately, some international technical support continues to be necessary, as it is in many countries.

“During the last fifteen years, Timor-Leste has seen more than its share of incompetent or ill-intentioned foreign advisors, including some in the judicial system, and we encourage more careful hiring and review processes to ensure that those who come to advise know what they are talking about.

“Unfortunately, one such advisor — Bobby Boye in the Ministry of Finance, currently pending trial in the USA for defrauding Timor-Leste [4] — originated many of the tax cases which Timor-Leste is losing on appeal. Information on these cases is not public, so we cannot assess whether Timor-Leste’s cases are strong on the facts and the law. However, it is not surprising that appeals courts and arbitration panels are deciding for the companies in some instances, as such matters are legally complex and Timor-Leste was justified in asking for every possible assessment.

“The people of Timor-Leste overcame tremendous obstacles to achieve sovereignty, human rights and constitutional democracy. We are confident that they will do so again, that current setbacks to the rule of law are temporary and will be corrected, and that Timor-Leste’s judicial system will be able to function effectively, independently and according to the Constitution and the law.”

ETAN continues to support Timor-Leste’s people in the struggle for independence and justice, as we have since 1991.

]]>http://portuguese-american-journal.com/news-alert-etan-exposes-east-timor-policies-hostile-to-democracy-and-the-rule-of-law/feed/0CPLP: Portuguese NGO’s contest Equatorial Guinea membership – Portugalhttp://portuguese-american-journal.com/cplp-portuguese-ngos-contest-equatorial-guinea-membership-portugal/
http://portuguese-american-journal.com/cplp-portuguese-ngos-contest-equatorial-guinea-membership-portugal/#respondSat, 26 Jul 2014 15:29:44 +0000http://portuguese-american-journal.com/?p=34622The Portuguese Non-governmental Development Organization is suspending its consultant observer status at the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) following its acceptance of Equatorial Guinea as a full member, Lusa reported. Addressed to the Executive Secretary of the CPLP and circulated among the ambassadors of CPLP member States and other consultant observers, the letter asserts […]

]]>The Portuguese Non-governmental Development Organization is suspending its consultant observer status at the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) following its acceptance of Equatorial Guinea as a full member, Lusa reported.

Addressed to the Executive Secretary of the CPLP and circulated among the ambassadors of CPLP member States and other consultant observers, the letter asserts that the platform’s next General Assembly would debate and “vote on a proposal for definitive withdrawal as a consultant observer” from the Portuguese commonwealth.

“The CPLP is not — nor can it become — a business club in which the strictly economic interests of an elite overwhelm the human rights and the dignity of the many,” said the platform’s letter signed by its president Pedro Krupenski.

According to Krupenski’s letter the observers, “profoundly regret the unanimous deliberation on the membership of Equatorial Guinea as a full member of the CPLP” alleging that the decision defied the CPLP’s own statutes in terms of its commitment to human rights and democracy.

The letter then continued by underpinning its opposition to Equatorial Guinea and listing reasons including the “arbitrary execution of its citizens” and being “at the top of the list of the most corrupt countries in the world” in addition to its grotesque wealth distortions with the country’s status as the third largest African oil producer still seeing 80% of its people live in abject poverty.

Equatorial Guinea was admitted as full member of the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries (CPLP) at the organization’s 10th summit held July 22-23, in Dili, East Timor, expanding the organization from nine to ten members, with the membership of Equatorial Guinea.

The CPLP heads of State and/or government representatives from Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal, São Tomé and Príncipe and Timor-Leste elected their host Taur Matan Ruak as president of the CPLP for the next two years.

]]>http://portuguese-american-journal.com/cplp-portuguese-ngos-contest-equatorial-guinea-membership-portugal/feed/0CPLP: Equatorial Guinea joins the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries – East Timorhttp://portuguese-american-journal.com/cplp-equatorial-guinea-joins-the-community-of-portuguese-speaking-countries-east-timor/
http://portuguese-american-journal.com/cplp-equatorial-guinea-joins-the-community-of-portuguese-speaking-countries-east-timor/#respondWed, 23 Jul 2014 20:19:52 +0000http://portuguese-american-journal.com/?p=34547Equatorial Guinea was admitted as full member of the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries (CPLP) at the organization’s 10th summit held July 22-23, in Dili, East Timor. Guinea-Bissau, suspended from the CPLP in 2012 following the coup of April of that year, was readmitted in the wake of the recent presidential and legislative elections. After a […]

]]>Equatorial Guinea was admitted as full member of the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries (CPLP) at the organization’s 10th summit held July 22-23, in Dili, East Timor.

Guinea-Bissau, suspended from the CPLP in 2012 following the coup of April of that year, was readmitted in the wake of the recent presidential and legislative elections.

After a debate, without the decision going to a vote, all CPLP heads of state and government agreed to admit Equatorial Guinea as a full member of the CPLP. The West African country is one of the continent’s largest oil producers. Equatorial Guinea did not take part in the discussion.

CPLP members are Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal, Sao Tome and Príncipe and East Timor, before the admission of the West African dictatorship, where Spanish and French are also spoken.

Present at the summit, Portugal’s president, Cavaco Silva, considered that integrating the dictatorship into the CPLP “was the best way to contribute” to the respect for human rights in that country. The roadmap for Equatorial Guinea’s admission included the end of the death penalty and measures to promote the use of the Portuguese, in a country where Spanish is most widely spoken.

Teodoro Obiang Nguema, Equatorial Guinea’s head of state, pledged to defend the articles” of the CPLP and “‘act’ in line with its principles and objectives” along with other intentions such as a multidisciplinary study center (in a country that has not built new state schools for decades) and a Portuguese language center dedicated to the CPLP.

Not without controversy, the admission of Equatorial Guinea by CPLP was met with criticism by some observers and some CPLP members. Human rights groups have consistently opposed the admission of Equatorial Guinea as a member while several leading opposition politicians in Portugal have described the admission as a “shameful error” that could reduce the CPLP’s role in the world.

Obiang Nguema, who rules a rogue country afflicted with corruption and violence, has been president since 1979, the longest country-serving presidents in Africa. His clan members have outstanding arrest warrants in several countries. Equatorial Guinea has also been criticized by many NGOs for violating human rights and extreme levels of corruption in the country under the rule of the dictator.

In another development, the heads of state and other government representatives at the CPLP summit approved a resolution to create an expert group to establish a CPLP consortium for oil and gas.

Lusa has reported that, according to the text of the resolution, the CPLP leaders approved a proposal from East Timor to set up a Technical Study Group, open to participation by member states, for the joint exploration and production of hydrocarbons in members’ territory. The resolution states that the group will function in the “ambit of the periodic meetings of CPLP oil ministers, in line with the guiding framework for ministerial meetings.”

Combined oil and gas reserves in CPLP members’ territory would, the resolution notes, make it the seventh largest producer in 2015 and the fourth largest in 2025.

]]>http://portuguese-american-journal.com/cplp-equatorial-guinea-joins-the-community-of-portuguese-speaking-countries-east-timor/feed/0Portugal: Cavaco Silva attending the 10th Summit of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries – East Timorhttp://portuguese-american-journal.com/portugal-cavaco-silva-attending-the-10th-summit-of-the-community-of-portuguese-speaking-countries-east-timor/
http://portuguese-american-journal.com/portugal-cavaco-silva-attending-the-10th-summit-of-the-community-of-portuguese-speaking-countries-east-timor/#respondMon, 21 Jul 2014 14:06:46 +0000http://portuguese-american-journal.com/?p=34451The President of Portugal, Aníbal Cavaco Silva, will travel to East Timor to attend the 10th Summit of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP) taking place July 23 in Dili. Portuguese Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho is also expected to attend the summit. Cavaco Silva arrives in East Timor July 22 after ending a […]

]]>The President of Portugal, Aníbal Cavaco Silva, will travel to East Timor to attend the 10th Summit of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP) taking place July 23 in Dili. Portuguese Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho is also expected to attend the summit.

Cavaco Silva arrives in East Timor July 22 after ending a three day official visit to South Korea at the invitation of South Korean President Park Geun-hye.

In South Korea, Cavaco Silva presided at the opening of an Economic Seminar organized by the Federation of Korean Industries and by the Portuguese Export and Investment Agency (AICEP). He also met with representatives of the large Korean corporations, representatives of the Portuguese and Korean academic and scientific institutions and representatives of the Portuguese community resident in Korea.

On Monday, before departing to East Timor, President Cavaco Silva held a private meeting with President Park Geun-hye to address ways to increase bilateral cooperation in trade, investment, renewable energy, aviation, shipping and tourism, among other areas.

In East Timor, President Cavaco Silva will hold a private meeting with Timorese President Taur Matan Ruak followed by meetings with his CPLP counterparts.

Established in 1996, theCommunity of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) represents the nations where Portuguese if the official language, including the countries of Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal, São Tomé and Príncipe and East Timor. the CPLP population is estimated at 240 million.

The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste (population 1, 72, 390) is a Southeast Asian country comprised of half of the island of Timor. Established as a Portuguese colony in 1702, the country gained independence from Portugal in 1975. Following independence, East Timor was under Indonesia occupation until 2002 when freedom was restore.

Aníbal Cavaco Silva , 76, was elected for a first term as President of Portugal in 2006 and re-elected in 2011. He was Prime-Minister from 1985 to 1995. According to the Portuguese Constitution, the post of Portuguese President is largely ceremonial since the executive power lies with the Prime-Minister.

]]>http://portuguese-american-journal.com/portugal-cavaco-silva-attending-the-10th-summit-of-the-community-of-portuguese-speaking-countries-east-timor/feed/0Book: The Lone Flag: Memoir of the British Consul in Macau during World War II – Reviewhttp://portuguese-american-journal.com/book-the-lone-flag-memoir-of-the-british-consul-in-macau-during-world-war-ii-review/
http://portuguese-american-journal.com/book-the-lone-flag-memoir-of-the-british-consul-in-macau-during-world-war-ii-review/#respondSun, 18 May 2014 22:11:23 +0000http://portuguese-american-journal.com/?p=33575Reviewed by Bill Purves* Portugal was neutral in World War II, and the Axis powers were anxious that it should remain so. As a result, even after Timor Leste’s neutrality was ignored by the Allies, the Japanese continued to respect that of Macau. That made Britain’s pre-existing Macau consulate the only one to remain in […]

Portugal was neutral in World War II, and the Axis powers were anxious that it should remain so. As a result, even after Timor Leste’s neutrality was ignored by the Allies, the Japanese continued to respect that of Macau. That made Britain’s pre-existing Macau consulate the only one to remain in service in the Far East between the Soviet Union and Australia, except for those in China. John Reeves was the vice-consul there who kept that lone flag flying. The Royal Asiatic Society has together with Hong Kong University Press now published Reeves’ memoir of his wartime experiences.

Regrettably, he began writing in 1945 immediately after the war’s end and had completed the manuscript by 1949 when Macau’s post-war status was still in doubt and Reeves was still in the Foreign Service. His revelations would in any case have required vetting by the Foreign Office, so Reeves’ account is less than half of the story.

He focuses on his efforts to assist the 300,000 or so who took refuge in Macau after the fall of Hong Kong. They were British citizens, mostly Chinese, who had some family or other connection with Macau which the Japanese used as an excuse to push them out of Hong Kong to ease the shortage of food and fuel. Reeves describes his efforts to house and feed them and the parallel medical system he helped set up to meet their many needs. He claims that overall the refugee death rate was lower than that among refugees in London before the war.

Whitehall supported him financially throughout. There was no mail; the only contact with the outside world was through encoded radio messages. But the British government was able to transfer funds in the ordinary way through a bank in Lisbon.

British Consul John Pownall Reeves

How Reeves found anything to buy, however, is left unexplained. Presumably the remittances eventually supported a network of smugglers and other war profiteers. They also supported the Japanese war effort, as the Japanese were able to print army scrip and exchange it for hard currency in Macau, another reason, presumably, why its neutrality was respected.

Apart from his official duties, Reeves recounts some of the social life of the colony during the war. Even Portuguese wine was scarce, but sports, amateur performances and tea dances were apparently popular.

All this is interesting as far as it goes, but Reeves’ presumably much more interesting anti-Japanese activities are alluded to only occasionally, and very, very indirectly. He mentions only that the Japanese offered a £4000 bounty for his assassination and that he was protected by plain-clothed Chinese nationalist troops as well as his own paid bodyguard. He claims to have been involved in smuggling about 300 Allied partisans through the Japanese lines to free China, but only his handling of one party of downed American airmen is described in any detail.

So don’t purchase this memoir for tales of hugger-mugger, but The Lone Flag nevertheless gives an interesting picture of wartime life in a theatre which has previously received almost no attention.

______________

* Bill Purves is a Canadian engineer/manager, a runner and a writer who lives in Hong Kong. He trained as a seaman, earned his seaman’s papers and made several voyages on a variety of Asian-owned and operated freighters to research his unique inside look at the worldwide shipping industry and the people behind it. He is the author of several books, including A Sea of Green: A Voyage Around the World of Ocean Shipping and China on the Lam: On Foot Across the People’s Republic.

The book:The Lone Flag: Memoir of the British Consul in Macau during World War II, John Pownall Reeves, edited by Colin Day and Richard Garrett (Hong Kong University Press, April 2014)

]]>http://portuguese-american-journal.com/book-the-lone-flag-memoir-of-the-british-consul-in-macau-during-world-war-ii-review/feed/0Sports: Portugal withdrawing athletes from the Lusofonia Games 2014 – Goa, Indiahttp://portuguese-american-journal.com/sports-portugal-withdrawing-athletes-from-the-lusofonia-games-2014-goa-india/
http://portuguese-american-journal.com/sports-portugal-withdrawing-athletes-from-the-lusofonia-games-2014-goa-india/#respondWed, 08 Jan 2014 06:09:54 +0000http://portuguese-american-journal.com/?p=31643Portugal is withdrawing their football team and some high-ranking athletes from the Lusofonia Games 2014, to be held January 18-29 in Goa, The Times of India reported Wednesday. The Lusofonia Games [Jogos da Lusofonia], similar to the Commonwealth Games for former British colonies, involve athletes from the former Portuguese colonies. Goa was ruled by the […]

]]>Portugal is withdrawing their football team and some high-ranking athletes from the Lusofonia Games 2014, to be held January 18-29 in Goa, The Times of India reported Wednesday.

The Lusofonia Games [Jogos da Lusofonia], similar to the Commonwealth Games for former British colonies, involve athletes from the former Portuguese colonies. Goa was ruled by the Portuguese from 1510 until 1961.

Portugal’s decision may be linked to recent reports that the Nehru Stadium, in Fatorda, was infested with malaria. According to a press release by the local health authorities, about 70 per cent of the cases detected “were from migrant construction workers.”

“Portugal feared a malaria outbreak during the Lusofonia Games. I don’t know how they arrived at that conclusion because, as everyone would know, there are no such fears at all,” Lusofonia Games CEO, Keshav Chandra, told The Times of India.

Portugal, which had agreed to send their best football squad for the Games, “last week dropped a mail to suggest they were not keen on sending the football team,” taking the Lusofonia Games organizing committee (LUGOC) by surprise, reported the source.

Football will be a major draw at the Games, where the Portuguese 150-member football squad was expected to be the biggest attraction. The team would bring players from Benfica, Sporting and Porto, the three major Portuguese football leagues.

Portugal had previously pulled out their basketball and volleyball teams from the competition after the Lusofonia Games 2014 dates clashed with championships back home, it was reported.

The competition is organized by the ACOLOP, (Associação dos Comités Olímpicos de Língua Oficial Portuguesa) which involves athletes coming from the Portuguese-speaking countries, namely those belonging to the CPLP (Community of Portuguese Language Countries).

]]>http://portuguese-american-journal.com/sports-portugal-withdrawing-athletes-from-the-lusofonia-games-2014-goa-india/feed/0Sports: 2014 Lusofonia Games launched today – Goa, Indiahttp://portuguese-american-journal.com/sports-2014-lusofonia-games-launched-today-goa-india/
http://portuguese-american-journal.com/sports-2014-lusofonia-games-launched-today-goa-india/#respondTue, 10 Dec 2013 16:48:36 +0000http://portuguese-american-journal.com/?p=31299The third Lusofonia Games will take place in Goa, India, from Jan 18 to 29, in the new year. Over 1500 athletes and officials from 12 nations are expected to participate in the 12-day event. As the commencement of the Lusofonia Games grows nearer, the Games launch event in Goa today will be introducing the […]

]]>The third Lusofonia Games will take place in Goa, India, from Jan 18 to 29, in the new year. Over 1500 athletes and officials from 12 nations are expected to participate in the 12-day event.

As the commencement of the Lusofonia Games grows nearer, the Games launch event in Goa today will be introducing the official mascot alongside the debut of the official Games song. Moreover, the official torch of the Games will be unveiled to the public in the hands of India’s former track and field sprinter, Milkha Singh.

In order to showcase the harmony between participating contingents, the multilingual Games song has elements in the languages of Konkani, Portuguese, Marathi, Hindi and English, and will be performed by Goa’s two leading singers.

“The ethos of multiplicity is India’s rich cultural diversity,” stated the organizer in a press release, revealing that “mesmerizing” performances of various art forms have been prepared for the launch event, which is dedicated to every element of nature – fire, water, earth, air and ether.

Led by celebrated theatre director Bansi Kaul, the team behind the event features eminent personalities in fields such as vernacular theatre and Indian classical music. Alongside professional performing groups, students from a number of schools will also take part in the performances. Professional Indian tennis player Sania Mirza will also grace the occasion.

]]>http://portuguese-american-journal.com/sports-2014-lusofonia-games-launched-today-goa-india/feed/0Heritage: II International Conference on the Future of the Portuguese Language – Lisbon, PThttp://portuguese-american-journal.com/heritage-ii-international-conference-on-the-future-of-the-portuguese-language-lisbon-pt/
http://portuguese-american-journal.com/heritage-ii-international-conference-on-the-future-of-the-portuguese-language-lisbon-pt/#respondMon, 28 Oct 2013 21:32:37 +0000http://portuguese-american-journal.com/?p=30757The II International Conference on the Future of the Portuguese Language is taking place, from October 29 to November 1, in the University of Lisbon. Gathering more than 300 participants, the conference includes policy-makers, institutional, academic researchers, mostly from the eight Member States of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) namely Angola, Brazil, Cape […]

]]>The II International Conference on the Future of the Portuguese Language is taking place, from October 29 to November 1, in the University of Lisbon.

Gathering more than 300 participants, the conference includes policy-makers, institutional, academic researchers, mostly from the eight Member States of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) namely Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal, São Tomé and Príncipe and Timor-Leste.

The conference will endorse the Plano de Ação de Lisboa [Lisbon Action Plan], a document offering recommendations on the future of the Portuguese language as a global language for scientific development, innovation, entrepreneurship, business and international organizations and as a language of communication and cooperation among the CPLP Member States.

Spoken by an estimated 250 million people worldwide, Portuguese is the sixth language most spoken globally and the fifth language most used in Facebook and Twitter.

The Portuguese Language is also one of the official languages of the Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China of Macau (alongside Chinese) and of several international organizations, including the Mercosur, the Organization of Ibero-American States, the Union of South American Nations, the Organization of American States, the African Union and the European Union.

According to estimates by UNESCO, Portuguese and Spanish are the fastest-growing European languages after English and the language has the highest potential for growth as international languages in Southern Africa and South America.